Software Engineer, Los Angeles

Please note: Smarkets is unable to offer work sponsorship for this role and all candidates must be authorized to work lawfully in the United States.

Smarkets is Python and Erlang technology company based in central London, Malta and now Los Angeles. We've built one of the world's largest betting exchanges, also known as a prediction market, with significantly better odds than the competition. Our strength is technology and trading with a passion to push the known boundaries of real-time financial technology.

We're a growing team of over 100, boasting more than 30 nationalities, and we are looking to build out our team in Downtown Los Angeles. Our platform has handled over £3 billion of bets since launching in 2010, allowing us to become one of the most profitable companies per employee in Europe.

Our mission is to disrupt one of the oldest industries in the world by rethinking the method and model of the betting business. We think traditional sports betting rips off bettors, taking up to a 15% margin on bets. We offer the industry's lowest margin of around 2%. We can and will do better.

We're building a reliable, low-latency, highly concurrent system capable of scaling to thousands of executions per second with sub-millisecond latency. Whether you want to work on the exchange platform, the front-end or trading mechanisms, you'll be solving real and challenging problems - from pushing Python performance to new heights to handling real-time design constraints.

The Smarkets platform is written predominantly on Python and Erlang, and relies heavily on asynchronous programming techniques. We use REST where we can. We deploy to production several times a day.

Our software stack is built around Linux, Vagrant, Flask, Postgres, RabbitMQ, Git and Ansible - but we are not resistant to change when it's needed.

Smarkets prides itself on collecting individuals seeking challenge, and our team members' experiences show this. Come join former financial and adtech engineers, researchers, scientists, and PhDs at one of the most dynamic fintech startups.

Responsibilities

Define your own role within the context of self-management (we'll help you get settled)

Play an active role in setting up the office and team in Downtown LA

Write robust, high-performance code, usually Python and Erlang

Contribute to the organization by advancing culture, challenging colleagues and perpetuating a knowledge-driven environment

Have fun!

Requirements

Strong coder

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Solid knowledge of data structures and algorithms

Knowledge of relational databases

Comfortable in a Linux environment

The ability to learn with enthusiasm

Bonus

Functional programming knowledge

Experience with web technologies and methodologies like web servers, REST, and protocol buffers

Interest in probability, sports and exchanges

Perks

Self-management structure similar to Valve

Generous vacation policy

100% employer paid health insurance

Flexible work environment

Free lunch, social events and parties on a frequent basis

Downtown LA office very close to the metro

Compensation Guidance

Salary determined by peer review and dependent on experience. Stock options, and other benefits for qualified candidates.

This is a full-time job based in Downtown LA.

Notes

If you are not confident in your coding abilities, you should reconsider your application for this role. This is a highly technical position, and rigorous testing will be required to qualify each candidates proficiency.

We transfer and store the information you submit to help us process your application and to make our hiring process better. We also make use of third-party hiring tools to help us process applications. As we are based in both Europe and the United States, your data may be located outside your home country when we process it. Please only submit your application if you are happy for us to use your information in this way.

Equal Opportunities

Smarkets provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, orientation, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In compliance with US Federal law, all persons hired by Smarkets will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire.

An Insider's view of Smarkets

What are some social events your company does?

We eat lunch together every day! It allows us time to socialize and grow closer as a team, eat great food, and play one of our many board games or activities in the office. At the end of every month we also have a happy hour to celebrate that month's accomplishments where the team and their friends and family can all join!

Amanda

Lead Recruiter

How does the company support your career growth?

At Smarkets the engineering teams have true ownership over their work. We are the main drivers behind all technical/product decisions and the added responsibility helps us become more well-rounded engineers.

Zach

Software Engineer

How do you make yourself accessible to the rest of the team?

I'm always available to our team of just over 100 employees, but since I launched the LA office, I get to work alongside a team of talented developers on a daily basis. It allows them to share ideas directly with me to influence the direction of the company and promotes an agile work environment.